Marquis Cornwallis (portrait of). 
Robert Emmett (portrait of). 
Daniel O’CONNELL, M.P. (Sketch of). 
Lesser illustrations (at ends of chapters). 
Cromlech on Howth. 
Mouth of sepulchral chamber at DOWTH. 
St. KEVIN’S church. 
CORMAC’S chapel and round tower. 
Round tower at DEVENISH. 
South window of st. CAEMIN’S church. 
Figures on KILCARN Font. 
Trim castle. 
Figures on KILCARN Font. 
Initial letter (from the book of Kells). 
St. Patrick’s bell. 
Initial letter (from the book of Kells). 
CINERARY urn. 
Tara brooch. 
Doorway of st. CAEMIN’S church. 
Shrine of st. Patrick’s bell. 
St. Columba’s oratory. 
Initial letter (from the book of Kells). 
Crypt of Christ church cathedral.

THE STORY OF IRELAND.

I.

PRIMEVAL IRELAND.

“It seems to be certain,” says the Abbe McGeoghehan, “that Ireland continued uninhabited from the Creation to the Deluge.”  With this assurance to help us on our onward way I may venture to supplement it by saying that little is known about the first, or even about the second, third, and fourth succession of settlers in Ireland.  At what precise period what is known as the Scoto-Celtic branch of the great Aryan stock broke away from its parent tree, by what route its migrants travelled, in what degree of consanguinity it stood to the equally Celtic race or races of Britain, what sort of people inhabited Ireland previous to the first Aryan invasion—­all this is in the last degree uncertain, though that it was inhabited by some race or races outside the limits of that greatest of human groups seems from ethnological evidence to be perfectly clear.

When first it dawns upon us through that thick darkness which hangs about the birth of all countries—­whatever their destiny—­it was a densely wooded and scantily peopled island “lying a-loose,” as old Campion, the Elizabethan historian, tells us, “upon the West Ocean,” though his further assertion that “in shape it resembleth an egg, plain on the sides, and not reaching forth to the sea in nooks and elbows of Land as Brittaine doeth”—­cannot be said to be quite geographically accurate—­the last part of the description referring evidently to the east coast, the only one with which, like most of his countrymen, he was at that time familiar.